Super cheesy and creamy Vegan Cheese Sauce made in the Instant Pot!
Use it on nachos, as dips, over pasta or make your favorite mac & cheese!
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Vegan cheese? Have you guys ever tried it? I am not a vegan but I am often intrigued by some of the vegan products that I see in the market.
I remember once I was very fascinated with tempeh and bought a big packet from the store. I was not able to eat it at all!
I can eat pretty much everything as long as its vegetarian but I wasn’t able to eat tempeh. Maybe it was just me and I need to give it another shot?
Recently, I bought a pack of vegan cheese to use on my pizza from Trader Joe’s. To my disappointment, it turned out really bad and ruined my pizza. I just couldn’t eat it.
There was no taste and it was all a big mess. Is there any vegan cheese that you guys like? Let me know and maybe I will give it another go.
Anyway, I am not a very cheese person but sometime back I happened to try a vegan cheese sauce at a restaurant which I really enjoyed. I thought it was so cheesy and so perfect and I couldn’t believe it was vegan.
Since then, making a vegan cheese sauce has been on my to do list and what better than using my Instant Pot to do it!
You guys, this sauce is so cheesy, really it tastes like the real deal. You would have a hard time believing it’s all vegan.
How to Make Vegan Cheese Sauce
Well you start off with some creamy vegetables like carrots, potato. Add cashews for more creaminess, add in some spices for flavor and then add the most important ingredient – nutritional yeast!
Have you guys ever had nutritional yeast? I started adding to it salads, soups and dips recently. Don’t confuse this with the active dry yeast that you use for baking.
This is totally different, it’s deactivated yeast and you can find it online at amazon or at stores like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s. Adding the nutritional yeast really bring out the cheesy flavor.
This is one ingredients which you absolutely cannot skip in this recipe!
This vegan cheese sauce recipe is so simple to make in the Instant Pot. You just need to dump everything together, cook it on high pressure and then puree it in a blender to a smooth sauce.
So easy and tasty!
How to Eat The Vegan Cheese Sauce?
In so many ways!
- Use as a dip with veggies, chips
- Top is over chips for nachos
- Toss with macroni for vegan mac n cheese
- Toss with rice and veggies for a creamy bowl of cheesy rice
And so so much more!
I hope you guys give this recipe a try. It’s made with simple ingredients (except the nutritional yeast) and is really good.
Can I Freeze The Vegan Cheese Sauce?
Yes, you may! I divide the sauce into small portions and then freeze each portion in a separate ziplock. Squeeze as much air as possible from your ziplock and then freeze.
Take out the portion that you want to use and place in the refrigerator overnight. I have in fact frozen couple of portions and I will get back to you how it works.
Method
1- To your instant pot add cubed russet potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, cashews and 1 cup water.
2- Close the pot with its lid. Press the manual/pressure cook button and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. The pressure valve should be in the sealing position.
Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes and then do a quick pressure release by manually moving the valve from sealing to venting position.
3- Let the veggies cool down a bit and then transfer them to a high speed blender.
4- Add nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, garlic powder, salt, turmeric, white vinegar, lemon juice and 1/4 cup of either water or almond milk.
Pulse for 30 seconds or until the sauce is super creamy and smooth. Transfer vegan cheese sauce to serving bowl. Enjoy with chips or veggies!
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Instant Pot Vegan Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 large russet potato 320 grams, cubed
- 1 large sweet potato 300 grams, cubed
- 2 large carrots 170 grams, cut into rounds
- 1/4 cup cashews raw, 35 grams
- 1 cup water 8 oz
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1.25 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1.5 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/4 cup water or almond milk 2 oz
Instructions
- To your instant pot add cubed potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, cashews and 1 cup water.
- Close the pot with its lid. Press the manual/pressure cook button and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. The pressure valve should be in the sealing position.Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes and then do a quick pressure release by manually moving the valve from sealing to venting position.
- Let the veggies cool down a bit and then transfer them to a high speed blender.
- Add nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, garlic powder, salt, turmeric, white vinegar, lemon juice and 1/4 cup of either water or almond milk.
- Pulse for 30 seconds or until the sauce is super creamy and smooth. Transfer vegan cheese sauce to serving bowl. Enjoy with chips or veggies!
Earth Island makes a great vegan (for me it’s the dairy free that won me over!) cheese… I use the cheddar for my homemade pizza. It even melts like cheese!
I will definitely try it! Thanks Christy!
Tempeh is really good, but you need to steam it for about 10 minutes before you do anything else. Many recipes do not include this step, but it doesn’t taste good if you don’t steam it, then add marinade, and carry on. Also, I love Trader Joe’s, but their vegan cheese is the worst…..blech. I like Daiya cheddar slices, and Daiya shreds. I make cheeze sauce pretty similar to this recipe, but I am defiantly going to try your variations, thank you.
Thanks Krista, I will give tempeh another try and steam it this time and see! 🙂
Fresh homemade tempeh is nothing like commercial. It is incredible.
I will need to try it then!
I love that there is no oil or vegan butter in this. Will make today! Thanks so much!😋
Yeah I agree with you. The fact that there is no vegan butter in there is really a plus.
OK. I made this today and I suppose being new to Veganism, I thought this was pretty gross. Maybe I had too high of expectations for an imitation cheese. 😩 I did end up making 7 cups. Maybe I used too much potatoes and not enough seasonings?
Sorry you didn’t like it..try adding more seasoning like onion powder, maybe more cayenne pepper and tomato paste? And it does take some time to like the taste of vegan cheese..
How many serving is are the nutritional facts based on? Just wondering the size (cup, tablespoons, etc…) of one serving that the calorie count, etc.. was based. Thank you!
1 cup (8 oz) for this recipe..and this nutritional information is calculated by a plugin so it can never be 100% accurate but it definitely gives an idea!
Any thoughts on what to substitute for cashews? I have an allergy.
other nuts like almonds? or try sunflower seeds?
Awesome! I would have never thought to use our pressure cooker instead of just boiling the veggies. Brillant!
Can you reheat the cheese to use for dipping with chips once you have refrigerated it?
yes you can
For store bought vegan cheese, try Follow Your Heart’s Mozzarella. Melts beautifully in vegan lasagna. We like their sliced cheese Pepperjack and Smoked Gouda.
As for the tempeh, try it when an Indonesian has cooked it for you. They fry it in this sweet, salty, tangy sauce.
Happy Day to you!
Sweet and salty tangy sauce might make me like tempeh! Thanks for sharing Cecile! 🙂
I’d stick to making your own vegan cheeses as the ones that are store bought that melt all seem to have modified food starch in them, and I’m pretty sure anything modified is not so good for you!
Also the teriyaki Tempe is really good, it works well as “bacon”, I like to make BLT’s with it.
Is one cup a serving?
No but it makes 4 cups and I am not sure how many people it can serve..it totally depends!
so what is the serving size for your nutrition info?
1 cup! although this is just en estimate as it’s calculated automatically by a plugin so not 100%
I probably would end up eating the whole batch myself 🙂